About Kataphatic

Kataphatic (sometimes spelled “cataphatic”) is a way of talking about or worshiping God that is in positive terms; that is, expressing language about God in terms of what God is. To say God is love, or God is truth, or that God is with us would all be kataphatic statements. This is in contrast with apophatic theology, which generally focuses on what God is not, especially in the sense that we simply cannot describe the perfection and awesomeness that is God. All of our “yesses” eventually fall short, because even our biggest YES cannot encompass all that God is. Kataphatic worship is active, vibrant, living; it engages the senses with candles, music, incense, visuals, and body movement. Apophatic worship is quiet, silent, introverted and contemplative.

I chose the term “Kataphatic” for this blog because in liberation theology I believe we are very much talking about what and who God is. We are talking about how an active God, who moves in the liberation of the oppressed, the freeing of those in bondage to live full lives. This theology calls us to action, to getting our hands dirty, to standing in solidarity with those on the margins, or fight for our own liberation when it is we who are oppressed. This is a Matthew 25-centered view of the world in which we find that when we visit the imprisoned, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked we are doing those things unto Jesus.

This blog will make its primary focus fat liberation theology; that is, a theology that seeks to set fat folks free from the bondage of social oppression and empower us to live fully into the one body and one life that we have to live. While this is the primary focus of the blog, you can expect to find overlap and intersection with other topics such as mental health, physical health, gender, ability/disability, race, sexuality, and sexual orientation.